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Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives
Chastity Index
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Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives |
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Chastity Index |
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| Chastity Giving into one's lustful drives is irrational. Chastity is more than prudent self-control. To practice chastity there must be chastity of the eyes, chastity of the ears, chastity of thought and chastity of desire. |
| Chastity
and Eternal Life The clearest teaching of our faith on the necessity of chastity for attaining eternal life is in Christ's sermon on the mount. He is telling his followers that the Old Testament prohibition of adultery is not enough. If we wish to reach heaven we must not only control our bodies, we must master even our minds. |
| Christian
Chastity and the Pro-Life Movement For many people the subject of our present conference must seem strange. What connection is there between chastity and the pro-life movement? There is more than a connection. There is the dependence of a building on its foundations. Chastity is the foundation of the pro-life movement. |
| Contraception:
Fatal to the Faith and to Eternal Life You might say this piece will be two articles in one. First we shall see how the practice of contraception inevitably leads to the loss of the true faith. Then we shall look at how contraception leads to eternal death. |
| The
Eucharist and Chastitiy To understand how indispensable the Eucharist is to the practice of Christian chastity is to understand the meaning of Christianity. When Christ told us, "Without me, you can do nothing," He meant this to be taken literally. Without the constant help of His grace to enlighten our darkened minds and strengthen our weak wills, all the moral precepts of the New Testament are so much pious rhetoric or religious jargon. |
| Prayer
and Chastity "…chastity has been called the difficult virtue and Christ's teaching on chastity the difficult commandment. But that is an understatement. When Christ told us that, 'without me you can do nothing,' He meant two things. He meant that without the possession of His grace in our souls no one can reach heaven. He also meant that without grace we cannot practice virtues which He told His followers are necessary to remain in His friendship." |
| Confession and Growth in Chastity The present article must seem strange for two reasons. What can we possibly mean by growth in chastity? In the language of all cultures and the experience of all people, chastity is a virtue that you struggle to preserve. Seriously, is there such a thing as growing in chastity? So, too, the sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ to restore us to the state of grace after we have lost God's friendship by committing mortal sin. What does Confession have to do with growing in any virtue, including the moral virtue of chastity? |
| Modesty is Always in Style If there was ever a strange title for a talk on the Pro-Life movement it is surely, "Modesty is always in Style." The reason why this title seems so strange is that people just do not associate modesty with the pro-life movement or, as the Holy Father calls it, "the Culture of Life." Yet the two issues are closely related. Modesty is a pre-condition for chastity, and chastity is the pre-condition for the culture of life. |
| Sex and Sanctity The stress in my presentation, therefore, is on sex as a means, and sanctity as the end. I assume that sanctity is achieved by doing the will of God according to one’s state of life; and sex is an inevitable part of everyone’s state of life. Sex is inescapable, sanctity is attainable. And a major factor in attaining sanctity depends on how a person copes with sex in his or her particular state of life. For the sake of convenience, I will distinguish three general states of life in each of which sex is divinely intended to be a means of sustaining and growing in the life of God. |
| Sex Stimuli and Christian Chastity Our subject for this evening's conference is Sex Stimuli and Christian Chastity. A subtitle for this conference could be: Sex Stimuli and Christian Sanctity. Everything in our lives is intended by God to draw us closer to Him in this world and bring us to the possession of Him in a heavenly eternity. Sex stimuli are a part of Divine Providence. Provided they are used according to the will of God, they are not only the occasion for the practice of moral chastity. They can be the means of reaching the highest sanctity. |
| Consecrated Chastity - A Mystery of Faith It is remarkable how frequently we now hear or read about celibacy, among priests or religious, and how comparatively less often we hear about consecrated chastity.…We shall approach this delicate topic under the following headings: Chastity as the virtue of temperance, Chastity as the virtue of charity, and Chastity as a lifetime imitation of Jesus Christ."> |
| Psychology and Christian Chastity: A Catholic Evaluation of Sex Education My plan for this conference is first to briefly explain how secular psychology paved the way for introducing sex indoctrination into elementary education in the United States. Then, in sequence I will point out some of the principal departures from historic Christian principles which have penetrated sex education even in nominally Catholic institutions. |
| Christianity and Sexual Pleasure The first reaction to a subject like sex and Christianity, or even sex and sanctity, is wonder and misgiving. We have become so accustomed to associate sex with sin that even our vocabulary has been affected. The first thought that comes to most people's minds on hearing words like impurity or immorality is some failure against chastity, as though there was something basically wrong with the use of sexual faculties, or as though the essence of evil was sin against the sixth and ninth commandments of the Decalogue. |
| Catholic Catechism on Homosexuality Over the centuries, the Church has often issued decrees defending Catholic morality. Among these decrees more than one has condemned the practice of homosexuality. Until recent years, however, the more common term used by the Church was "sodomy" and not homosexuality. The reason for the shift in vocabulary has been mainly the widespread denial that sodomy is anywhere formally condemned by Sacred Scripture. Another reason is that homosexuality has become so prevalent in the modern world that one psychological science after another has developed a library of literature defending the practice of homosexuality. |
| The Sixth and Ninth Commandments and Consecrated Chastity The extensive teaching of the Second Vatican council on Consecrated Chastity is absolutely unique in the Church’s two thousand years of the Church’s councilor history….There is nothing like it in all the previous councils of the Church. You might ask why? One reason that I like to repeat, having been privileged to assist with the broadcasting of the canonization of Saint Maria Goretti. In 1950, Pope Pius XII in his homily after the canonization predicted that the enemies of the Church would use sex pleasure to destroy the faith of millions of believing Christians. As he said without chastity, Christianity cannot survive. Everything that he predicted has been fulfilled beyond his own, the Popes wildest, might I say, nightmares. There is a worldwide mania called sexual promiscuity. |
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